Page 34 of Hard Rock Heat
"Hey there, sport." Damon hefted the kid into his arms. The boy seemed to be around six or seven. "What are you screamingabout?"
"Kaylee's hogging the drum kit," he whined. "She won't let me play. Jessie said she had toshare."
"You liked the drums?" Damon asked. The kid nodded vigorously. "What about guitar?" he asked. "You like thattoo?"
"Nooo," the kid practically shouted. "I like to hit with thesticks."
Damon laughed, his eyes sparkling. Something in my chest twinged at the sight. I'd never seen Damon interact with a kidbefore.
"How about this." Damon set the boy down on the floor. He looked around and grabbed four pencils from the front desk. He kept two and gave the kid two. "See these?" Damon held up the pencils. "You can do a lot with these things.Watch."
Damon hit the sticks together in a one-two-three beat, then began tapping them against everything in sight. The floor, the desk, the plastic chairs — anything in the front foyer was a impromptu drumset.
The kid's eyes lit up as he began to follow Damon's pattern. He held the pencils tight in his balled fists and couldn't keep a rhythm to save his life, but the kid seemed to be having the time of his life smacking them against every available surface, giggling and cheering the wholetime.
"See, sport?" Damon said with a laugh. "You don't need a drum kit. Everything's an instrument when you're creativeenough."
"I'm gonna go show Kaylee!" the kid cheered. "She's gonna be sooo jealous. I can drum oneverything!"
The kid ran back down the hallway, shrieking the entireway.
Damon gazed after him with a fondexpression.
I'd never particularly liked kids. I didn't dislike them, I'd just never been around them much. I'd never really thought about kids except in an abstract, "maybe one day" sort ofway.
But seeing Damon play with that young boy, seeing the soft look on his face, I swear my ovaries jumped intooverdrive.
I cleared my throat and looked away, not wanting to be caught staring, starry-eyed.
"You're good with kids," was all Isaid.
"Must be because I'm so immature myself," hesaid.
I glanced at him to see a smile on his face. My heart thumped in mychest.
"I can't argue with that," I told him, trying to force down the flush on my cheeks. "You act like a horny teenaged boy half thetime."
"Only half?" hegrinned.
Jessie came back to find us smiling at each other. She gave the two of us an odd look. I quickly looked away from Damon and gave her my fullattention.
Jessie handed me a folder full of papers. "I've put together a list of contact info and some background research on a bunch of organizations you might to speak with. The Executive Director loves your idea. He said he'll help out in any way hecan."
"Thank you so much, Jessie," I toldher.
"Anything to help the kids." She threw Damon a cheeky grin. "Besides, this way you owe me one and I can hold it over your headforever."
"You've already got half the patrons at Walt's bar by the balls," Damon said. "Don't see why you need to add mine to yourcollection."
"I thought your balls were already claimed by someone else?" she askedarchly.
"No, that's—" Damon cut himself off, chagrinned at having given himselfaway.
"Ah-ha!" Jessie pointed a finger at him. "I knew you were Damon. Ian could never hold that smug look for longer than a few seconds." Jessie turned to me. "Better keep an eye on this one. His band is full of cocky pains-in-the-ass, and he's the worst of themall."
"Come on," Damonprotested.
"Don't even pretend you're not." She gave Damon the stink-eye. "You and those rock star friends of yours are a bunch of no-goodlunatics."
